Former Portugal Prime Minister Jose Socrates has been detained by police as part of a corruption investigation.

Mr Socrates, who led Portugal's centre left government from 2005 to 2011, was arrested on Friday as he flew into Lisbon airport.

The former leader is one of four people detained as part of a probe into money-laundering and bribery.

The announcement comes in the wake of several other ongoing corruption investigations in Portugal.

Mr Socrates was held overnight and is expected to be questioned on Saturday.

A statement from the attorney-general's office said prosecutors had carried out searches at several locations, aided by 70 tax and police officers.

It said the investigation is into banking operations and transfers "without known justification or legal admissibility".

It also stressed it was a separate from a long-running investigation into tax fraud in which several public figures have been caught up.

The development also comes just days after Portugal's Interior Minister Miguel Macedo resigned following another investigation into alleged corruption linked to the allocation of residence permits.

Despite not being on the G-20 agenda the crisis in Ukraine hung heavy over the gathering of leaders from key developing and industrial countries Saturday.

With the meeting in its second and final day, President Obama talked Asia Pacific cooperation and Ukraine with the Australian and Japanese leaders. The leaders called on Russia to stop meddling in Ukraine. They expressed unity "in opposing Russia's purported annexation of Crimea and its actions to destabilize Eastern Ukraine."

They also called for "bringing to justice those responsible for the downing Malaysian flight 17" last July. Thirty-eight Australians were among the 298 people killed when the Malaysian airliner was shot down over war torn Eastern Ukraine.

Russia's Vladimir Putin is present at the summit but keeping a relatively low profile.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday met with Putin, telling him that Russia has two choices: either implement the Minsk cease fire and withdrawal agreement, or persist with destabilizing Ukraine and face the prospect of further economic sanctions.

Obama is meeting the five European Union leaders present in Brisbane to discuss Ukraine and possible new sanctions.

Putin told a German interviewer that the sanctions are harmful to the world economy and to Russia, and run counter to what the G-20 is trying to do to boost global growth.

Leaders of the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — also met on the sidelines of the Brisbane summit. A short statement issued afterwards made no mention of Ukraine.

The BRICS leaders — who have agreed to share their currency reserves and are setting up an infrastructure development bank— called on the United States to ratify long-delayed International Monetary Fund reforms which give greater voice to BRICS nations. The US, with the largest share of IMF votes, is the only country that has not yet approved the 2010 reforms.

Australian finance minister Joe Hockey says economic matters continue to be the central challenge for the G-20. "We can't rest," he said, "the world needs growth." Hockey said climate change and other issues should not overshadow what he called the real work of the summit.


USA today

German Football League President Reinhard Rauball says UEFA would have to consider leaving FIFA if world football's governing body does not publish in full American attorney Michael Garcia's report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Rauball tells Kicker magazine that he also wants FIFA to divulge what wasn't evaluated in Garcia's report and "whether it was justified to leave these things out. That has to be made public. It's the only way FIFA can restore some of its lost credibility."

Rauball was responding to German judge Joachim Eckert's ruling that exonerated Russia and Qatar of any corruption in their winning bids to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, respectively — a ruling that was harshly contested by Garcia.


AP

 Pro-Russian separatists will vote to set up a breakaway regional leadership in eastern Ukraine on Sunday aiming to take their war-torn region closer to Russia and defying Kiev and the West as the big guns still boom across the territory.

The United States and European Union have denounced as illegitimate the vote which is sure too to stoke tensions further between the West and Russia.

The separatists' poll is the latest twist in a geo-political face-off between Russia and the West over Ukraine going back to the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in February and the installation of a Ukrainian leadership that seeks integration with mainstream Europe.

In Donetsk, the separatists' political and military stronghold, election workers at a polling station in an elementary school pasted red, black and blue rebel flags over Ukrainian state symbols on ballot boxes ahead of the vote.

"Voters lists were taken out by Ukrainian authorities, so we have had some difficulties, but we're trying to hold a legitimate vote for the people of Donetsk," said Natalia Chaban, an election official at a local school.

The big industrial city, which had a peace time population of nearly one million, experienced some of its heaviest mortar and artillery shelling of the last few weeks just hours before voting was due to begin. Ukraine said six of its servicemen had been killed in the last 24 hours.

Kiev says the vote violates the Minsk protocol that underpins a ceasefire between the rebels and Ukrainian troops. This, although sporadically broken, has allowed a semblance of normality to return to Donetsk following violence that has killed more than 3,700 people.

Kiev's pro-European government says the Minsk agreements, signed by rebel leaders and envoys from Kiev, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), forsee elections held under Ukrainian law.

These would appoint purely local officials with whom Kiev would agree new local powers to provide the regions with greater say in their own affairs.

The rebels' plan to elect leaders and institutions in a breakaway territory in the regions of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk, one week after a Ukrainian parliamentary election, violates that agreement, Kiev says.

The vote is certain to further strain ties between the West and Russia, already under several rounds of European and U.S. sanctions for its role in eastern Ukraine, after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would recognise the vote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday the election was illegitimate and would not be recognised by Europe.

"We all understand that the West is fighting with Russia, but they've decided to do it in Ukraine. As for us, we're just trying to survive," said Vitaly, 34, a businessman in Donetsk.

CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENTS

Rebels say the election will legitimise the separatist leadership and consolidate power, though many Donetsk residents say the vote will change nothing and the outcome is already a foregone conclusion.

Enthusiasm for the rebel cause, which was at its peak in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east following the ouster of Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich, waned after violence closed banks and many stores, forcing people out of work.

"As for the elections tomorrow, I don't plan to vote. No one I know plans to either. There is no point," said Natasha, without giving her last name, outside a central Donetsk jewelry store, whose windows have been boarded up for months.

Current rebel prime minister Alexander Zakharchenko, a former mining electrician whose face is plastered on campaign advertisements across Donetsk, is almost certain to win the vote for the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

Zakharchenko, 38, has pulled colourful campaign stunts comparing the industrial region's coal deposits to the oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates and promising pensioners a monthly stipend that will allow them to go on safari in Australia.

His opponents, two lesser known separatist figures, have rarely, if ever, appeared in public.

At a Donetsk university, students gathered on Saturday to the tune of Russian composer Pyotr Chaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" playing over loudspeakers until Zakharchenko arrived, dressed in his camouflage military gear.

"We need a strong republic," he told the hundreds of students assembled in the auditorium of the Donetsk National Technical University, "And your weapons are your textbooks."

The rebel vote, which has no voting lists, will allow internet voting, which has already started, and mobile polling stations, will also select a People's Council, a lawmaking body.

Walking her two months old-granddaughter, Valentina Borisova, 52, said she planned on voting in the election to legitimise the current rebel leadership and start building a future for the region.

"We have to hope for the best and work towards creating our own little country," said Borisova, a worker at a local steel factory.

"Otherwise at our factory we barely have work, and that only happens when Russia delivers raw materials," she said.


reuters

Moscow and Kiev on Thursday clinched a deal that will guarantee that Russian gas exports flow into Ukraine and beyond to the European Union throughout the winter despite their intense rivalry over the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

"There is now no reason for people in Europe to stay cold this winter," said EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, whose offices mediated the talks for months.

He said he was "hopeful that the agreement can contribute to increase trust between Russia and Ukraine."

EU energy chief Guenther Oettinger said that "we can guarantee a security of supply over the winter," not only for Ukraine but also for the EU nations closest to the region that stood to suffer should the gas standoff have worsened.

The agreement long hinged on the question whether Ukraine was in a position to come up with the necessary cash to pay for the gas. "Yes, they are," a confident Oettinger said. The EU is set to come forward with aid to back up the cash-strapped government in Kiev.

Oettinger said the $4.6 billion deal should extend to the spring.

"We can claim and pay for amounts that we need. That question has been totally settled," said Yuriy Prodan, Ukrainian Minister for Energy.

After gas stopped flowing over the summer, Prodan said that it would resume its way into Ukraine "straight after we pay $1.45 billion" in a first portion. "There will be no problems."

The deal only stretches through March and the difficulties of the talks were immediately evident when the Russians and Ukrainians started disagreeing on terms and prices of gas for next summer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, agreed earlier this month on the broad outline of a deal, but financial issues, centering on payment guarantees for Moscow, had long bogged down talks.

But with each week, the need for a resolution becomes more pressing, since winter is fast approaching in Ukraine, where temperatures often sink below freezing for days.

Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in June after disputes over Russia's annexation of Crimea in March. Ukraine since then has been relying on gas transfers from other European countries and its own reserves.

The EU has said previously that Ukraine would settle its energy debt to Russia with a $1.45 billion payment by the end of the month and $1.65 billion more by year's end. It has said for new gas deliveries, Ukraine would pay $385 per 1,000 cubic meters, which Russia should deliver following advance payments by Ukraine.

ap

In a vivid display of public fury at European Union technocrats, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to pay a surprise 2.1-billion-euro (1.65 billion pound) bill on Friday as EU leaders ordered an urgent review of how the budget figures were arrived at.

As Eurosceptics at home leapt on news that the EU executive -- branded a "thirsty vampire" -- had demanded a sum worth about one seventh of London's annual payment after a major statistical review of national incomes, Cameron demanded action from fellow leaders at a summit calling the bill "completely unacceptable".

He found some sympathy - a visibly furious Cameron told a news conference that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had also lambasted "bureaucrats without a heart", who made it harder to persuade citizens of the Union's value.

"It's an appalling way to behave," Cameron said. "I'm not paying that bill on Dec. 1. If people think I am they've got another thing coming. It is not going to happen."

EU ministers will hold an emergency meeting on the issue next month. Cameron said he wanted to understand the technical calculations and was also ready to mount a legal challenge.

EU officials insisted the revision, which also saw Italy and even crisis-hit Greece asked to pay more while France and Germany would get rebates, was part of an annual statistical exercise handled by civil servants, not politicians.

Jose Manuel Barroso, outgoing president of the European Commission, defended his staff, telling a news conference the system was designed by national governments which provided the income data on which payments were calculated.

He said the EU executive would explain the calculation to ministers but there could be no question of changing what countries had determined were their gross national incomes.

Cameron noted that annual revisions to the payments had never been so great - an effect, EU officials said, of a once-in-a-generation review of how national incomes are calculated that found Britain was richer than it had previously declared.

Officials at EU statistics office Eurostat said that was a result mainly of taking more account of money flowing in 2002-09 to non-profit organisations - from churches and universities to trade unions, charities and sports clubs.

Those statistics are provided by national agencies and, a spokesman for the European Commission's budget directorate said, the revised calculations, which then have an impact on working out the annual contribution to the EU budget, had been reviewed by officials from national governments, as happens every autumn.

"This is a purely mathematical, technical process," he said. "So much so that member states agreed that the Commission can implement the adjusted figures by Dec. 1 every year without any need to submit a proposal to the Council (of EU leaders)."

However, governments have little awareness of how other states may be amending their income calculations until the data is put together by Eurostat in the final weeks, leaving the size of any budget adjusmtment open to potential surprises.

The apparent lack of awareness of the political sensitivity of such big adjustments this year overshadowed a day of summitry intended to review efforts to revive economic growth. The leaders also came up with 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of cash commitments to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

After an EU deal to curb climate change overnight, the anger on Friday at Brussels' officials may dampen the final week of the present Commission led by Jose Manuel Barroso. He will make way for incoming President Jean-Claude Juncker on Nov. 1 after 10 years in charge of the European Union's executive branch.

Juncker has pledged a "very political" rather than technocratic approach to try to regain the trust of the half-billion people in the EU, many of whom are turning to anti-EU parties like the UK Independence Party. But, Cameron warned, the latest row made it harder for him to make the case to British voters that they should stay in the 28-nation bloc.

Cameron has demanded reforms and plans a referendum on EU membership if he manages to secure re-election next May.

His Eurosceptic opponents, gaining ground fast on his Conservative Party, accused the premier of misleading voters.

"David Cameron once claimed that he had reduced the EU budget -- but the UK contribution went up and now, quite incredibly, our contribution goes up a second time. It's just outrageous," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

"The EU is like a thirsty vampire feasting on UK taxpayers' blood. We need to protect the innocent victims who are us."

Even Cameron's pro-European Liberal Democrat coalition partners, led by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said it was unacceptable to change membership fees "at the drop of a hat".

Several fellow EU leaders urged Britain to respect long-standing EU rules and not blow an accounting exercise out of proportion. Finland's prime minister said Cameron should not make "mountains out of molehills".

"NORMAL"?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande also told Cameron the rules must be respected, while the Italian and Dutch prime ministers voiced support for Britain, according to the official.

According to a table sent by the Commission to governments a week ago and seen by Reuters, Berlin and Paris will receive money back while the Italians and Dutch and even Greece, which has been in recession for six straight years, have to pay more.

Italian Secretary of State for European Affairs Sandro Gozi said Rome wanted to postpone the application of the new measure.

Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said, however: "I think it's very important that we don't start treating the EU as some sort of a simplified accounting exercise." He noted that Britain gets a rebate on its EU bill every year, unlike Finland.

After that rebate, worth 5.9 billion euros this year, Britain was due to pay 14.7 billion euros into the EU's 140 billion-euro annual budget. Germany is by far the biggest net contributor, followed by France and Italy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Cameron more sympathy: "I too was astonished how some got something back and others had to pay some more, and the scale was quite big," she said. "No one cast doubt on the calculation, but it's not so simple to pay 2 billion euros within a few weeks."

The request for additional funding came at an awkward time for Cameron, who faces a general election in May with UKIP cutting into his Conservatives' share of the vote.

The Eurosceptic party looks likely to win a second seat in parliament on Nov. 20, when a lawmaker who resigned from the Conservatives is standing for UKIP in a by-election in southern England. The budget row is a gift to UKIP for that ballot.

Anti-EU right-wingers in Cameron's own party also sought to exploit the issue ahead of a referendum on EU membership that he has promised for 2017 if the Conservatives win next year's national election.

John Redwood, a leading anti-EU Conservative lawmaker, said: "He should first of all decline to pay. He should make it very clear that the UK doesn’t accept retrospective taxation."

Christophe de Margerie, the charismatic CEO of Total SA who dedicated his career to the multinational oil company, was killed at a Moscow airport when his private jet collided with a snowplow whose driver was drunk, Russian investigators said Tuesday.

Three French crew members also died when the French-made Dassault Falcon 50 burst into flames after it hit the snowplow during takeoff from Moscow's Vnukovo airport at 11:57 p.m. Monday local time.

Tatyana Morozova, an official with the Investigative Committee, Russia's main investigative agency, said investigators are questioning the snowplow driver, who was not hurt, as well as air traffic controllers and witnesses.

"At the current time, it has been established that the driver of the snowplow was in a state of alcoholic intoxication," Morozova said.

NTV television showed the charred plane lying on a grassy field. Though it had snowed earlier Monday in Moscow, it was unclear how much snow remained at the airport at the time of the crash.

De Margerie, 63, was a regular fixture at international economic gatherings and one of the French business community's most outspoken and recognizable figures. His trademark silver handlebar earned him the nickname "Big Mustache."

A critic of sanctions against Russia, he argued that isolating Russia was bad for the global economy. He traveled regularly to Russia and recently dined in Paris with a Putin ally who is facing EU sanctions over Russia's involvement in the crisis in Ukraine.

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to his French counterpart Francois Hollande, lauding de Margerie for being at the "origins of the many major joint projects that have laid the basis for the fruitful cooperation between Russia and France in the energy sphere for many years."

Hollande expressed his "stupor and sadness" at the news. In a statement, he praised de Margerie for defending French industry on the global stage, and for his "independent character and original personality."

De Margerie started working for Total in 1974 after receiving his degree because it was close to home. It was a difficult time to join the firm as the oil embargo, which led to a fourfold increase in prices, was coming to an end.

"I was told 'You have made the absolute worst choice. Total will disappear in a few months,'" he said in a 2007 interview with Le Monde newspaper.

De Margerie rose through the ranks, serving in several positions in the finance department and the exploration and production division before becoming president of Total's Middle East operations in 1995. He became a member of Total's policy-making executive committee in 1999, CEO in 2007, before adding the post of chairman in 2010.

He was a central figure in Total's role in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq in the 1990s. Total paid a fine in the U.S., though de Margerie was acquitted in France of corruption charges.

Under his leadership, Paris-based Total claims it became the fifth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company in the world, with exploration and production operations in more than 50 countries.

On Monday, de Margerie took part in a meeting of Russia's Foreign Investment Advisory Council with members of Russia's government and other international business executives.

Jean-Jacques Guilbaud, Total's secretary general, said the group would continue on its current path and that the board would meet in coming days to discuss who will succeed de Margerie. Total planned a minute of silence in its offices worldwide at 2 p.m. Paris time.

After dipping slightly early Tuesday, Total's share price was trading 2 percent higher, in line with the broader rally in French stocks.

(AP) — A Spanish nursing assistant appears to have recovered from the Ebola virus, authorities said Sunday, nearly two weeks after she became the first person infected outside West Africa in the current outbreak.

An initial test shows that Teresa Romero, 44, is now clear of all traces of the virus, the government said in a statement. She has been receiving treatment in quarantine at a Madrid hospital since then.

Romero had treated two Spanish missionaries who were brought back to Madrid for treatment at Carlos III hospital after contracting Ebola in West Africa. The missionaries, Miguel Pajares and Manuel Garcia Viejo, later died.

A second test in the coming hours is needed to absolutely confirm Romero's recovery, said Manuel Cuenca, microbiology director at Madrid's Carlos III hospital.

"I am very happy today, because we can now say that Teresa has vanquished the disease," said Romero's husband, Javier Limon, in a video recorded sitting on his hospital bed. He was put into quarantine after his wife became sick.

Health authorities euthanized the couple's pet dog named Excalibur on Oct. 8 instead of placing it in quarantine, creating outrage among animal rights activists. The next day, thousands of people gathered in more than 20 cities throughout Spain to show their solidarity with Romero and to protest against how Madrid authorities dealt with the dog.

A second nurse who had also treated Garcia Viejo was released from hospital on Oct. 11 after twice testing negative for Ebola.

Maria Teresa Mesa, a family friend who has acted as Romero's spokeswoman, told journalists outside the hospital that she had spoken with her Sunday.

"She's doing spectacularly well," she said. Mesa said Romero had also told her that at one point she felt she could have succumbed to Ebola.

Earlier on Sunday, a crowd of several hundred people had gathered in Madrid to protest against Health Minister Ana Mato and to call for her resignation.

Among those who have been monitored at the Carlos III — apart from Romero's husband — there have been five doctors, five nurses, three hairdressers who attended her at a beauty salon, a paramedic and a health center cleaner. None have shown signs of having been infected.

Spain, meanwhile, has agreed to allow the U.S. to use two military bases in the southwest of the country to support its efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

A Defense Ministry statement said the deal permits U.S. armed forces to use the air base at Moron de la Frontera near Seville and the naval station at Rota on Spain's Atlantic coast to transport personnel and materials to and from Africa. Defense Minister Pedro Morenes sealed the deal with U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel in Washington.

The ministry statement, released late Saturday, said the agreement will be reviewed and updated on a case-by-case basis.

(AP) — Bosnians are voting in general elections that will show whether people are more concerned about the 44 percent unemployment rate or still mired in wartime nationalist divisions.

The incumbent leader of the Serb half of the country based his campaign on promises of Serb secession, while his opponents focused on fighting poverty and corruption.

The country's Bosniacs and Croats who share the other half have their own nationalistic disputes but are more focused on the economy.

The country's 4 million people are governed by four layers of government with overlapping authorities. People are choosing over 500 officials. Bosnia has 162 ministers — one on every 26,000 people. On Sunday, voters will choose a three-member presidency that represents both parts of the country, plus parliaments and local officials.

(Reuters) - A Spanish nurse who is the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa may have touched her face with the gloves of her protective suit while caring for a priest who died of the disease, a doctor treating her said on Wednesday.

The nurse, Teresa Romero, was being treated for the deadly infection at a Madrid hospital while Spanish officials launched an investigation into how she was able to contract Ebola despite strict protocols for handling contagious patients.

The virus, which the World Health Organization said had killed 3,879 people by Oct. 5 in West Africa since March in the largest outbreak of the disease on record, causes haemorrhagic fever and is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person.

A Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died in a hospital isolation ward on Wednesday and the U.S. government ordered extra screenings at five major airports.

The WHO said it saw no evidence of the disease being brought under control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with neighbouring countries being told to prepare for the disease to spread across their borders.

Britain said it was sending extra troops, aircraft and a naval vessel to Sierra Leone to help stem the spread. The deployment will see 750 military personnel help set up treatment centres and a training facility. Three helicopters and a 100-bed naval hospital will also be sent to the region.

INTERNET DISCOVERY

While Romero is the only confirmed Ebola case in Spain aside from two priests who contracted the disease in Africa and died, more than 50 other people who may have had contact with the virus in the country are being monitored, including primary health care and hospital staff, European officials said.

"She has talked to me about the gloves, she touched her face with the gloves. That's what she remembers and what she has told me three times," German Ramirez, one of the doctors at Carlos III hospital where the nurse is being treated, told reporters.

The nurse took leave from work immediately after Spanish missionary Manuel Garcia died on Sept. 25. Wearing a full protective suit, she had entered the priest's room once while he was alive and once after his death to clean the room.

"I believe the error was made when taking off the suit," she told Spain's El Pais newspaper in a telephone interview published on Wednesday. "I see that as the most critical moment, when something could have happened. But I'm not sure."

Health worker union officials said Romero alerted hospital staff three times to say she had a fever and a rash, but because her temperature had not gone above 38.6 degrees Celsius the hospital did not see her as a risk.

Romero found out she had the disease by looking at the news on the Internet on her phone while she was waiting for the result of her test, she told Cuatro television station in a telephone interview.

"I asked the doctor for the result and he didn't answer in a very clear way and that's when I started to suspect," adding she then looked at her phone to find there was a positive case of Ebola in Spain.

Health authorities on Thursday put down the dog, a labrador-type breed called Excalibur, who lived with the nurse and her husband in a suburban Madrid flat, saying it posed a biological risk and there was evidence dogs could carry the virus.

The dog was taken out of the apartment block in a police-protected van with the windows blacked out and a driver in a protective suit while around 30 animal rights activists shouted "Murderers!".

The childless couple are two of six people under observation in the sealed-off sixth floor of the hospital in Madrid. The rest of the people, including other nurses who cared for the infected priests, have initially tested negative for Ebola, health authorities said.

Other people being monitored include two hairdressers who waxed the nurse as part of a beauty treatment, media reports said.

CALLS FOR CALM

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy defended his country's health authorities and urged people not to panic.

"We have to keep calm. It is extremely unlikely that this will turn into an outbreak affecting many people," he said.

Rajoy said he had created a committee to oversee co-ordination between the regional Madrid government, the central government and European institutions. He said Spain was in constant contact with the European Union and the World Health Organization.

"Let the professionals do their work," he said. "The Spanish health system is one of the best in the world."

He said the investigation into how the infection had occurred was a priority and was still under way.

Two experts from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the region, have gone to Spain to help with the investigation, a spokesman for the European Commission said.

The spokesman said Spanish authorities had told the EU it was not clear at this stage how the infection had occurred, but it may have been due to "possible relaxation" of protocols for handling the corpse or for the disposal of medical waste.

The Commission's health security committee gathered representatives from all EU states, the ECDC and from the World Health Organisation's European regional headquarters to discuss the situation on Wednesday.

The WHO's Europe director Zsuzsanna Jakab told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday it was "unavoidable" that Europe would see more cases of Ebola within its borders because of busy travel links with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

She stressed, however, that the continent was well prepared for handling Ebola virus disease, and said she did not expect to see any widespread outbreaks in European countries.

A new World Bank assessment of the potential impact of the epidemic estimated that if it spread wider from the three states into neighbouring larger economies, the two-year regional financial impact could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015.

(Reuters) - Francesco Totti, who turned 38 on Saturday, became the oldest scorer in European club competition history when he found the net after 24 minutes of AS Roma's Champions League Group E match against Manchester City on Tuesday.

Totti, who is in his 23rd season with his only professional club, beat the record previously held by Ryan Giggs who scored when he was 37 years 289 days old for Manchester United against Benfica in September 2011.

The Italian equalised for Roma at the Etihad Stadium after Sergio Aguero had given the home side the lead.